On November 8, a group of armed men forcibly entered into the premises of Karachi Press Club (KPC) and started making video recordings of different parts of the premises.
At around 10:30 pm, the armed men in plain clothes reached the press club in cars and land cruisers accompanied by a police van. They were carrying cameras and mobile locators and started searching different rooms, kitchen and the upper floor of the building.
The office bearers of the press club immediately informed the Karachi office of the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistan army, which denied the involvement of the military in the incident, holding the Counter Terrorism Department of Karachi Police responsible for the raid.
According to the press release issued by KPC, the unprecedented act was another outcome of an ongoing campaign to subdue the press on the part of state and non-state actors.
Talking to Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF), Ahmed Khan Malik President of KPC said that, SSP South Peer Mohammad Shah told him that the intruders were in a search of a suspect and they entered the press club by mistake. Malik further added that, forcibly entering the premises of KPC is not acceptable and condemned the incident.
In the evening of November 9, KPC called on a meeting in which the governing body of press club and members of the local journalist union carried out a protest rally to governor house. The office bearers met Governor Sindh, Imran Ismail and informed him about the incident.
Ismail assured the journalists that a thorough investigation will be carried out in two to three days and report will be shared with the press club. The Governor also ensured the protesters that such incident will not happen again.
The adviser to Chief Minister of Sindh on Law, Anti-Corruption Establishment, and information, Murtaza Wahab condemned the incident and said we will not let such incident happen again.
Senate Chairman Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani also asked Sindh government to submit a report of the incident.
Tariq Abul Hasan, President of Karachi Union of Journalists (KUJ-Dastoor), rejected the explanation regarding mistakenly entering the press club by mistake as KPC is a well-known location in Karachi.
Rana Azeem, President of Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), also condemned the incident and said PFUJ staged protest demonstrations against the incident throughout the country.
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